bright side: i don't have the flu-thing everyone else has got.

[fox]

(there does seem to be a spectacularly nasty flu going around oxford -- i haven't heard anything about birds, but the people who've been sick have been really sick, which is bad enough whether birds are involved or not -- and i don't have it.  thank god.  have actually not had the flu since the last time i got a flu shot, and i'm glaaad.)

i don't understand.  i take cold medicine; i go to bed.  i sleep, but not well.  i wake up with my head congested like the 14th street bridge at 9am.  i take more cold medicine; i go back to bed.  i sleep much more peacefully (though still with weird dreams).

why, please, does taking the cold medicine not work the first time?  should i take two doses of it before i go to bed in the first place?  that seems excessive, but i like breathing.  memo to my sinuses:  what is it you want?  you can have it!  just, please, let me sleep at night, instead of from 9 in the morning until 2 in the afternoon.

Comments

[trislindsay.livejournal.com]

Oh Babe, I'm so sorry you are sick. Not being able to sleep is the pits, especially when you know you need to sleep to get better.

Don't take double the dose. Getting too much antihistamine is the worst feeling in the world. Jittery, twingy, and unable to sit still until you are ready to explode (for HOURS). Try plain old saline nose spray to help you breathe. Stay away from all dairy products because they will add to your mucous making. Try stacking pillows so you are sitting up a little when sleeping so gravity helps the drainage.

And if your drainage is colored, go to the doctor. Viruses deplete your immune system and bacteria can sneak in.

Feel better. Comfort food. Comfort fics. Don't cry. Laughter is good and ups the immune system. (Picture me dancing in a tutu, that should do it for the laughter.)

[darthfox.livejournal.com]

well, there's no antihistamine, but i take your point about not doubling the dose -- two doses of the decongestant would dry me up like a raisin anyway. (this is a decongestant/expectorant only type deal.) unfortunately, saline nose spray has never helped me much, nor stacking the pillows either -- i don't breathe much better when i'm asleep sitting up, and all i want to do is lie down, even though lying down makes me feel rotten. but: this isn't that bad. that's when i get the nasty sinus infection with cough, which at the moment i don't have; the drainage is 99% clear and for about two minutes each morning there's a little bit of yellow. nothing, i suggest, to worry about right now.

except this paper i'm meant to be working on.